Company History

 

From 1950 to 2000 DWT Zimbabwe expanded rapidly to become the largest textile company in the country. It was internationally renowned for its quality and gained a fine reputation both at home and in export markets. Prior to 2002 David Whitehead Textiles Zimbabwe was part of Lonrho PLC, a large conglomerate manufacturing and trading throughout Africa. Lonrho PLC incorporated textile businesses in Malawi & South Africa as well as Zimbabwe.  

 

In 2000 Lonrho PLC started to divest its textile businesses and in 2002 David Whitehead Zimbabwe was acquired by senior management. It continued to flourish, doing particularly well in the export markets of Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia. Under-capitalisation was an issue and this coincided with the need to modernise the machinery in order to maintain capacity and adopt new production & dyeing technology.

 

In early 2008 the Elgate (Zimbabwe) Group of companies injected significant capital which resulted in Elgate taking a controlling interest.

 

This capital has been used effectively, which has increased productivity, reliability and quality. Through a period of consolidation, and more recently currency stabilisation and with a growing sense of optimism for a bright future - DWT Zimbabwe is set to become a significant force within the cotton industry of Zimbabwe & Southern Africa once again.